Ok folks, here’s a game I’ve been spending a bit of time on over the last few days (got a bit carried away to be honest, but hey ho). I’ve never run a game before, and I want to try a couple of different things to some of the games on here already, so this is very much a trial run! It might not work perfectly, but I think the basics should be fairly sound (I hope!).

The Story

Nestled in the foothills of a vast mountain range is the village of Smallhope, an idyllic refuge for the young and elderly goblins of their clan. It is also where young goblins are trained to become warriors before beginning their service in the warcamp. Early one spring morning, the chief military trainer, ‘Good-at Punching’ gathers the eldest apprentices for an announcement.

“Right you lot, listen up. You’ve been with us nearly 2 years now, learning how to survive in the wild and become true goblin warriors any clan would be proud of. Now, as you know, you all have to complete a final test to prove you are ready to join the warcamp, which is usually something like bringing back 10 redcap hats, or 20 wolf pelts… Well, this year it’s going to work a little differently. Seems an …unfortunate turn of events has left our teller here with a job needing done, and you crowd are going to do it. Apparently a bugbear came by the village yesterday offering to trade in rare antiquities, and it would appear our Didn’t-See-That-Coming got the rough end of the deal. Suffice it to say that the bugbear now has a SmallHope clan amulet in his possession, and Didn’t-See-That-Coming got a bag of explosive runes. Course, she thought they were ancient dwarven relics, and now her shack's half burned down so I’m sure you can understand her desire to set things straight with this guy. Long story short, track him down and get that amulet back.”

“You’ll need to prepare before you leave, so make sure you check out the village for supplies and to gather any information you need before heading into the wilds. You can pick up your standard equipment from inside the training hall.”

Anyway, off you go. If you’re successful, you can join the warcamp next season. If not, well… goblins have a high birth rate – I’m sure you’ll be replaced soon enough.”

Last edited by thinkslogically on Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:16 pm, edited 6 times in total.

MovementNormal = 2 turns to move to an unexplored space, 1 turn to move to an explored spaceScout = 1 turn to move to an unexplored space, or can move through 2 explored spacesEntering an unexplored space will end the turn.Sneaking = A special type of movement, which increases the players chance of remaining undetected. This can be used either as a major action or movement (so it is possible to sneak into a new area, or attack while sneaking for example). Success is not guaranteed.

ActionsYou may use one major action or two minor actions per turn. Talking is usually free unless you’re having a lengthy conversation (at my discretion!).Searching: Players may choose to search an area as a major action. Your degree of success is determined largely by the dice. If you fail in a search, you can retry. If you are successful however you cannot search the same place again to ‘upgrade’ your result.Attacking: Major action. Will end the turn.

InventoryThis is where everything you own goes. For the purposes of this game it is infinitely large, weighs nothing and even has a handy easy-access compartment to store your weapon in when you’re not actually sticking something with the pointy end of it (I’ll probably not draw weapons on your goblins for the first week or so while I get used to running the thing). Sign upsPlease be aware that this is a TRIAL game to test the mechanics, and is therefore subject to rule changes as we go along if things are starting to look really unbalanced at any point, so you may need a bit of patience as we go. For my part I promise not to abandon this game for anything other than a catastrophic event and will try and get updates out every 1-2 days through the week. Hopefully it’ll all go smoothly!

Updates will be around 8pm BST every day unless I let you know it's a skip day.

Last edited by thinkslogically on Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Creepy sounds really... unappealing, you should probably change the name. Also it might be nice to have an idea of how much it improves your chances of sneaking.

Taking two turns to move to an unexplored space sounds kind of annoying, does that mean people will have to do nothing for a turn while they wait? Maybe the scout benefit could be entering an unexplored space still allows them a conditioned action instead?

Other than that, sounds cool, but I just signed up to another game so it's only fair I sit this one out.

Those are good points, cheers I've changed 'creepy' to 'shadow', hopefully that's a bit cooler! And I like your idea for scouting too.

The idea behind this is that people are meant to track this thing down, so making it take 2 turns to explore new areas was basically to discourage folk from just charging off and finishing the game randomly / accidentally. I'll try it this way for now, and if everyone hates it we can always change it halfway through. Good old test games

Any and all suggestions on the rules are more than welcome, now and as we go!

Third Question: If I hide, and enimies cannot see me, do I get a bonus for backstabbing them?

1. Hadn't thought of that... It won't happen accidentally, but I suppose if you wanted to lop off a chunk of one of your mates that would be up to you.2. Yes, Goblin ESP will mean they know where you are even if you are successfully hidden.3. Yes, if your hiding is successful then you will get an attack bonus.

Since there's already so much interest in this, I'm going to close the sign-ups a day early and make the deadline 9pm (BST) tonight.